Matrix Games and Strategic Studies Group (www.ssg.com.au) are very pleased to announce their partnership to release Battlefront, an all-new wargame system that simulates battalion-scale combat in the largest cauldron of war humanity has known: World War II.

Battlefront features the power of battalion-level combat in some of this period's most bloody and intense conflicts: Saipan, Market Garden, Novorossisk, and Gazala. Players will have realistic control over their soldiers, with a tactical scale just large enough to make a telling difference in the strategic picture.

David Heath, Operations Manager of Matrix Games, said "We are truly pleased to work with a talented and established developer like SSG in bringing this product to the market. Our philosophies share much the same beliefs, in that wargames are meant to be fun, approachable, and challenging."

Gregor Whiley, Vice President of Strategic Studies, said “We are delighted to be working with Matrix Games again. This year will be the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the original Battlefront game. We believe that the new Battlefront system will set new standards for wargaming, just as the first Battlefront did.”

While the Battlefront system shares a design philosophy with SSG's award-winning Decisive Battles series, it is actually an entirely new system specifically designed for battalion-level combat. This level of play gives the player a chance to experience true issues of command, control, sighting, and supply at a level that emphasizes plenty of tough but enjoyable decisions to make. The combat system provides new and varied ways to damage your opponent, with provisions for direct and indirect fire, air strikes, and special, historically-accurate combat modes (such as Japanese Banzai attacks).

Players will have full control over the off-map movement of their units; players can move units in special off-map areas, getting realistic control over where and when to employ their reinforcements. Opponents will never be entirely sure where and when these units will arrive, increasing the tension and fun.

Battlefront is due for release by August, 2006.

Features of the new Battlefront system include:

● Improved Strategic AI enables a more flexible response to fast changing battlefields ● Improved user interface simplifies unit information ● Command and control system that rewards correct employment of military assets ● Close combat routines have special attack modes such as Banzai, Surprise and Infiltration ● Indirect Fire from artillery and air assets can directly attack enemy units ● Direct fire from AFVs can attack enemy units at range ● Counter-battery fire can eliminate enemy artillery ● Eliminated units can be rebuilt as cadres and returned to battle ● Sighting, command, supply and danger zone rules encourage sensible use of artillery ● Complete Unit, Map and AI editor allows users to create scenarios from scratch ● Improved Play By Email security

Those screen shots got me sold. Look very DB like but a but more advanced. And from reading the info it sound like it will include some of the stuff i missed in the DB engine like direct control over arty and aircrafts. And it even look like it is in a somewhat finished state so what are we looking at 2-3 months?

As the news item states there are 4 scenarios - each from different theatres in WWII and I can confirm that some of the SSG testers and Scenario Designers from Run5 are already hard at work on creating new scenarios.. so it wont be long after release that you will start seeing some additional scenarios for this beastie (for free as always!)...

I do know from speaking to one of the Run5 scenario designers that Okinawa is on his 'to do' list for Battlefront. So I wouldnt be too surprised if that scenario did end up getting released as a custom user scenario sometime down the path..

As the news item states there are 4 scenarios - each from different theatres in WWII and I can confirm that some of the SSG testers and Scenario Designers from Run5 are already hard at work on creating new scenarios.. so it wont be long after release that you will start seeing some additional scenarios for this beastie (for free as always!)...

I saw those four listed and I meant to make a more specific inquiry as to how they would play out. I'll do some more reading.

Because of this new scale, do you plane to do smaller battles Scenarios to avoid to many units at the same time on the map ?

Compare to BiN and BiI, will you said that Battlefrond's battles will have more, less or about the same number of units (counter) in the order of battle of both side ? (I don't like to play monster games)

And what will be the new maximum stacking in Battlefront ? (how many units in one hex)

Because of this new scale, do you plane to do smaller battles Scenarios to avoid to many units at the same time on the map ?

Compare to BiN and BiI, will you said that Battlefrond's battles will have more, less or about the same number of units (counter) in the order of battle of both side ? (I don't like to play monster games)

And what will be the new maximum stacking in Battlefront ? (how many units in one hex)

mario

Mario

The new Battlefront engine allows us to easily simulate both large and small battles. In the game, Market Garden and Gazala are big scenarios and Saipan and Novorossisk are smaller battles.

Stacking remains at four units per hex as it was in the Decisive Battles engine.

Quite the contrary for me. With the risk of getting hung from the closest tree by other people here I'll stick my neck out and air my feelings: The maps look similar to other DB games i.e. clumsy, toylike overemphasized map graphics with no similarity to like real maps or real terrain which is a big turn-off. The graphics artist seem to have played all too much with Photoshop's emboss filter. Why not take a look at Google Earth or military maps before starting out? Game graphics need to go pro to meet the level of work that usually goes into the game engine.